Is tea party poised to take over Boone County?

Raymond Whitaker plays with his granddaughter, Skarlett Whitaker, 2, on the playground at Boone Woods Park, Burlington. They live in Burlington. A proposed tax on Boone County parks in 2008 helped get the tea party off the ground.
(Photo:
The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy
)

Story Highlights

A tea party takeover six years in the making might finally become a reality if far-right candidates win Tuesday's primaries for Boone County Commissioner

In District 1, the five-person field includes former NKY Tea Party president Cathy Flaig

In District 2, Phyllis Sparks has run an aggressive campaign to unseat longtime Commissioner Charlie Kenner

District 3 Commissioner Charlie Walton hopes to hold onto his seat against a challenge from former Florence police chief Tom Szurlinski

Some political observers believe the tea party's political power peaked in 2010, but Boone County conservatives are hoping to prove them wrong next week.

A strong showing in Tuesday's Republican primaries for County Commissioner could help the tea party achieve a long-held dream: taking control of county government.

In the judge-executive race, tea-party-aligned Matt Dedden hasn't run as vigorous a race against incumbent Gary Moore as had been expected. But that seat isn't the tea party's only path to power: if their candidates win two county commissioner seats, they can block many pieces of legislation. And if they win all three, they can control the county's agenda.

If that happens, "I think you should expect a change on the Fiscal Court," said Phyllis Sparks, vice chair of the Boone County Republican Party and a candidate for one of the commissioner seats.

Dedden is giving up his District 1 county commissioner seat to challenge Moore. The five-way GOP primary for that seat includes Cathy Flaig of Hebron, the former county commissioner and former Northern Kentucky Tea Party president who unsuccessfully challenged Moore in 2010.

By virtue of her name ID alone, she's considered the favorite in a crowded field, though Adam Chaney of Burlington has raised enough money – $31,500 – to make him a serious contender. The race also features two small business owners, Mike Bailey of Burlington and Tony Jones of Burlington, and schoolteacher Christy Vogt Mollozzi of Burlington.

In the District 3 race, incumbent Commissioner Charlie Walton of Florence is hoping to fend off a challenge from Tom Szurlinski, the former longtime Florence police chief. During his four years on Fiscal Court, Walton has often voted with Dedden in a tea party bloc against Moore and Commissioner Charlie Kenner.

The most competitive race of the three is the District 2 contest between Kenner and Sparks, who entered the race more than a year ago and has outraised Kenner by about 2 to 1. The winner will face Democrat Franklin Messer in November.

Kenner, of Union, is a dentist and has been county commissioner since 2000. Sparks, of Walton, owns a mining business with her husband and was campaign coordinator for Thomas Massie's successful 2012 run for Congress.

The race has been personal at times: Sparks was highly critical of Kenner last summer when he was deployed to Kuwait with the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, where he holds the rank of captain.

She called upon him to resign his commissioner seat or at least forgo his pay during his 90-day tour of duty. (Technology saved the day, allowing Kenner to attend Fiscal Court meetings remotely.)

Kenner, meanwhile, accuses Sparks and other tea-party-minded candidates of wanting to dismantle the progress Boone County has made over the past decade.

"Boone County's not an accident: a lot of people worked very hard to get it here. And we don't seem to get much credit for that," he said.

In many ways, Boone County was tea party before there was a tea party: anti-tax, small government conservatives have always been extremely active in local politics. But it wasn't until 2008, when the county proposed a new tax to build more parks, that they got organized.

The parks tax was soundly defeated at the polls, but its ghost lives on: tea party conservatives still cite it as their top complaint with county government, and Flaig and Sparks both earned their tea party bona fides by working with Citizens for Lower Taxes, a tea party precursor, to defeat the ballot initiative.

"I think it was a wake-up call to the voters of Boone County, and it caused them to pay closer attention to what was going on in our county government," Sparks said.

After the parks tax, Boone was ripe for the national movement that sprung up in early 2009, when Fox News urged anti-tax crusaders across the nation to gather for 'tea party' demonstrations. The 100 or so people who gathered outside the Boone County Courthouse on that chilly April day were the same people who had always been critical of county government and taxes – but now they had a voice.

In the years since, the tea party has grown deep roots in Boone County. (And in fact, the movement has branched off into two separate tea party groups.)

In 2010, Boone Republicans went big for Rand Paul over NKY native Trey Grayson in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. In 2011, they picked Phil Moffett over David Williams, the longtime state Senate president, in the GOP primary for governor.

In 2012, Boone Republicans picked Thomas Massie over their own judge-executive, Gary Moore, in the GOP primary for Congress. That same year, tea party conservatives took control of the Boone County Republican Party, sweeping all five offices in the party elections.

There's every reason to expect the county will go for Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell in Tuesday's GOP primary for U.S. Senate, though McConnell is expected to easily win statewide.

But it's still hard to predict whether local tea party candidates will get any kind of 'Bevin bounce' next Tuesday.

After all, Moore – whom many tea party conservatives still view as the architect of the parks tax – was able to eke out a win in the 2010 GOP primary against Flaig despite the 'Randslide' at the top of the ticket that year. ⬛

A note to voters

Although County Commissioners represent districts, they are elected countywide. That means Boone County Republicans can vote in each of the three races on Tuesday's ballot, regardless of where they live.